As the battle develops, the conditions of offense and defense become more balanced. The trenches are flattened and the iron gill nets are completely destroyed. The battle becomes increasingly a wilderness with craters. As weeks pass, the enemy's losses increase. On August 25 and the next few days, the battle rises to a great war again; on October 13, several large-scale attacks along the tributaries of the Chikel River and fierce attacks on Beaumont-Amel were launched, with brilliant results.

Although the German army used much fewer people in almost every stage than the British attacking, the defensive experience of these smaller numbers may be more terrifying than the attackers. Watching the positions, trenches were continuously captured, and their defenders were either killed or captured, the German morale was undoubtedly deeply frustrated. Although the British army suffered much greater losses, they felt that they were constantly advancing and excited to seize the spoils and capture the prisoners of war, so that the unswerving Germans could not help but have the impression that they were being swallowed up by stronger enemies little by little. This influence was lasting, and the sense of failure gradually spread among the German soldiers, the spirit of perseverance, hard work and sacrifice gradually disappeared...

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When Russian designers heated up discussing how to realize the chariot on the drawings, the British created tanks that could be used for actual combat due to the growing desire to overwhelm the enemy and the strong hope of fighting at all costs.

The Western Front has been in a stalemate for more than two years. In order to break through the defensive positions composed of trenches, barbed wire and machine gun fire points and break the stalemate of positional warfare, the British racked their brains. Soon, Lieutenant Colonel Swindon, who served in the British Expeditionary Force, proposed that it is necessary to create an armored vehicle that can open up roads on a battlefield covered with barbed wire, cross trenches and destroy and suppress machine gun fire to break the dull deadlock on the Western Front. But the British Army had no interest in this, and Navy Minister Churchill was very interested in it and ordered the establishment of the "land warship committee" to personally lead the development of the "land warships".

Churchill was Churchill. In September 1915, under his leadership, engineers and technicians used automobiles, tractors, gun manufacturing and metallurgical technology to create the prototype "Little Vagrant". The "Little Vagrant" weighs 18 tons, has an armor thickness of 6 mm, is equipped with a 7.7 mm "Markchin" machine gun and several 7.7 mm "Lewis" machine guns. The engine power is 77.175 kilowatts, a maximum speed of 3.2 kilometers per hour, and it can pass 0.3 meters high obstacles.

Of course, this is just an armored vehicle with powerful firepower. The "little vagrants" who are not equipped with artillery seem weak to some fixed fortresses. Mr. Churchill continued his efforts. Two months later, the "Mark" Type I tank was born. The "Mark" Type I is a real tank with a diamond-shaped outer contour, with protruding gun seats on both sides of the car body. Two tracks bypass the body from the top, and a pair of steering wheels extend out from the back of the car. The tank has 8 crew members, including "male" and "female". The "male" is equipped with 2 57mm cannons and 4 machine guns, while the "female" is equipped with only 5 machine guns.

The first batch of tracked vehicles were exercised in Hatfield Park in England in early January 1916. The British King, Lord Kitchener and several senior officials were present. Lord Kitchener had doubts about it, but Prime Minister Lloyd George was very enthusiastic about it, and the British Command expressed moderate interest. The 59 such military vehicles developed in a highly secretive manner have been completed. At the same time, in order not to let the Germans notice such a new weapon, Churchill named this new weapon with the naval term "water tank (tank)".

The "Mark" Type I arrived in France in May for experimental purposes and training of operators. When they were found to have easily crossed the trenches and leveled the iron gill nets on the test ground set up behind the British front, their design power was attractive to the French commanders. The General Staff, which had been unenthusiastic before, now hoped to put them into battle immediately.

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On August 15, the first batch of tanks entered the battle on the front line of the British 4th Army that attacked the valley of Comble and Martin Pish. Lieutenant Colonel Swindon, who proposed to develop the tank, was promoted to brigade general and served as commander of the tank corps that had been formed. Of the 59 tanks transported from Britain to France, 49 arrived at the battlefield, of which 35 arrived at their starting point of combat, and 31 of them crossed the German trenches. Although the tanks were not functional and the drivers had not received strict training, General Swindon still achieved a huge victory.

In the earliest battle, a tank found that the attacking infantry was blocked by a gill net and machine gun in front of Freir, so it climbed over the German trenches, rushed behind the trenches, and immediately forced the more than 300 enemy troops guarding the trenches to surrender without any damage. Another time, only 9 tanks overcame many difficulties and attacked in front of the infantry. No matter where one tank reached its destination, its appearance was enough to make the shocked German army either flee or surrender. Ten days later, on August 25, another tank, followed by two infantry companies, swept through the Gilder trenches for 1,500 yards. In addition to killing and wounding a large number of enemy troops, it also captured 8 German officers and 362 soldiers, while the British army lost only 5 people in total.

On September 1, with great results, Swindon was promoted again to become a major general. Swindon, immersed in great honor, did not know that he could have achieved a world-shaking victory. One of his staff members once strongly advocated using tanks to guide the attack, and should invest as much as possible, and immediately followed a large number of infantry to attack together after the tank; however, Swindon did not adopt it, and he divided dozens of tanks into three or three to attack certain strong strongholds or perform special tasks alone. What Major General Swindon didn't know is that in Russia in the east, a girl named Anna was working hard to build a Russian tank. She had a dream: to let the torrent of steel of the Russian army surge all over Europe!

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In the autumn and winter of 1916, the British and French coalition forces were still attacking painfully, while the German army was still defending painfully. Major General Swindon's tank corps could not change the entire battle situation. In November, the battle reached its highest point and never approached this point again. The British and French artillery fire did not stop for an hour, and the shells landed on the German front day and night, tearing a terrible gap between the German troops; the shells fell on the front line near, so it was impossible for the German command to mobilize any troops to the front line; the shells fell on the trenches and cannon positions leading to the rear, and the military supplies were in a mess, and their miserable situation was unprecedented; the shells even kept flying to the rest and recuperation battalions far behind the front line, causing very painful losses, and the German cannons had no strength to suppress it.

Everything shows that the German army is going downhill.

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Chapter completed!